1. Field of the Invention
A versatile and portable gambrel for carrying or supporting an animal carcass is disclosed. Since the subject invention is lightweight and foldable to approximately pocket-sized form, it is particularly suited for use by hunters.
2. Description of the Background Art
Gambrels are devices that fasten to a carcass of an animal to permit a user to move or hoist the carcass into a required position for transportation, butchering, or similar procedure. Typical users include, but are not limited to, hunters, butchers, farmers, and ranchers. Over the years numerous gambrels have been created, but all of these have suffered from handicaps such as being generally too bulky to easily transport, complicated with numerous parts, and often weighing many pounds. The subject apparatus overcomes these and other prior difficulties by being collapsible or foldable, structurally strong yet lightweight, and relatively simple in construction.
Specifically, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,006,955 and 1,044,060 disclose a gambrel having two opposing apertures with clutch arm securing components that fasten on the legs of an animal carcass. A rigid central shaft connects the two clutch arm securing components into a fixed structure.
Related within U.S. Pat. No. 1,107,467 is a slidably adjustable gambrel with telescoping arm members. Each arm member is slid in or out of a receiving socket to accommodate a smaller or larger carcass. Each arm terminates in a holding jaw that clamps reversibly onto the leg of a carcass.
Revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,148,681 is a gambrel having a carcass leg securing hook at each end of a rigid, elongated, central body. Within each hook is a lever that cinches, due to gravity, upon a carcass leg. To permit removal of the carcass leg, upward movement or the leg releases the lever.
A meat hanging device is communicated is U.S. Pat. No. 1,404,436. A rigid, horseshoe shaped, central body has holding bars positioned proximate each of its two ends. Each bar is fitted within a receiving opening in the central body and so positioned that when a portion of a carcass is placed between the bars the carcass is wedged into fixed orientation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,914 is related a gambrel having a spring associated clamp for securing the legs of a carcass. Two opposing cinch plates are attached to the ends of pivotally coupled elongated members. Both cinch plates function together to secure the carcass.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,599 discloses a self-clamping suspension gambrel. A rigid, generally rectangular central member with two opposing rounded ends has an open interior that contains two pivoted clamping arms. Each pivoted clamping arm cinches upon a carcass leg to secure the carcass.
A method and apparatus for breaking animal carcasses and handling meat products is given in U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,699. A device strikingly similar to traditional ice tongs, functioning on a scissoring mechanism, is suspended from an overhead support. Opposing meat engaging plates, each with a securing spike, scissor or pinch the carcass into a fixed position. An upwardly directed spike is attached to one of the scissor arms to aid in holding portions of the carcass.
A triangular, apparatus for holding small game animals or fish during skinning, scaling, or butchering operations is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,101. Two opposing serrated arms clamp a carcass within a triangular opening generated by the two serrated arms and a third serrated member spanning the two serrated arms.
Finally, a typical gambrel used by hunters is disclosed on page 195 of the Fall 1990 catalog from "Cabela's" (Cabela's, 812 13th Avenue, Sidney, Nebr., 69160). A pulley system is incorporated into a rigid "coat hanger" like construction. To secure a carcass, hooks positioned at the tips of the "coat hanger" (nearly two feet between the hooks) penetrate the hind leg joints of the carcass.